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Monday, August 15, 2016

Satanists detail plans for state Capitol monument

BAPHOMET: Similar statue proposed by Satanists for Arkansas Capitol grounds.

As the Arkansas secretary of state moves closer to a clearance of a Ten Commandments monument on the Capitol grounds (and a likely lawsuit), other groups are making plans to be heard, such as The Satanic Temple.

You can read here the application it submitted last Thursday for a monument on the Capitol grounds. (Because, if one religion is to be memorialized, then others must be allowed a place, too.) The Satanic Temple was a key player in a fight in Oklahoma over a privately funded Ten Commandments installment. It withdrew plans for a Baphomet statue there after the monument on the Capitol grounds was destroyed and a court ruling went against the Ten Commandments installation. Why in Arkansas?

In certain countries that engage in religious discrimination, the beliefs and practices of religious minorities are considered blasphemous and offensive. In these countries, if a Christian were to create a representation of Jesus designed to project the concepts of mercy and forgiveness, people steeped in intolerance might misread the image to be threatening and offensive and contrary to the explicit message of the individual who created the representation.

The proposed Baphomet statue is no different and should be judged on both how it actually appears and the message it was designed to convey. It should not be judged on biases that might distort interpreting and appreciating the statue .The central image we have chosen in our monument design is known as ‘Baphomet’; a goat-headed, angel-winged, androgynous creature first rendered in its most widely recognized form by occult historian Eliphas Levi in the 19th century. The name Baphomet, however, comes much earlier from during the Crusades when Muslims were demonized —derived from ‘Mahomet’, or Muhammad, prophet of Islam. For centuries, Jews were regularly accused of all of the things now attributed to an imaginary Satanist conspiracy: infant sacrifice, cannibalism, complex plots against the Common Good. During the early colonization of the US, it was commonly believed that the Native ‘Indians’ worshipped Satan. Later, black slaves were the feared Satanists, believed to be entering into pacts with the Devil as part of a supernatural plot to overthrow their oppressors. And, of course, most everybody is aware of the Puritan witch-hunts.

These unjust accusations —these savage out-group purges —are all a part of the trial and error that helped us to realize our need for a rational, secular legal system. Standards such as the accuser’s burden of proof, the presumption of innocence, a respect for material evidence, are all a result of our finding ways to subdue brute mob intolerance. Today, we are rightly offended by anti-blasphemy laws and divine fiats.Our monument will stand in honor of those unjustly accused —the slandered minority, the maligned outgroups who ultimately found a home in the United States where religions are neither opposed nor imposed —so that we might pay respect to their memory and celebrate our progress as a pluralistic nation founded on secular law. Our monument will commemorate the codificationof American Constitutional Law, the establishment of jurisprudence, and presumption of innocence

For proposed locations, the group suggest three sites within 1 to 20 feet of the Ten Commandments monument. That sounds is Sen. Jason Rapert's head exploding.

The Ten Commandments monument has been completed and a group has applied for installation the capitol grounds. Secretary of State Mark Martin will consult with an advisory commission before expected approval of the monument, which is backed by state legislation. The ACLU, among others, has questioned the constitutionality of a religious memorial on the grounds.

The latest numbers from the Department of Human Services show thousands more people did not meet the reporting requirement on work hours in July to meet Medicaid eligibility standards.

Vincent Tolliver, a candidate for Little Rock, mayor, has written legislators asking the Senate Education Committee to ask Education Commissioner Johnny Key to testify about problems encountered by parents on Monday, the first day of school in the state-run Little Rock School District.

Speaking of Donald Trump and in answer to a reader's question: There will be a women's march in Arkansas on Jan. 21, the day after inauguration, as well as the national march planned in Washington.

Matt Campbell, lawyer and Blue Hog Report blogger, has sent a Freedom of Information Act request to Jay Chessir, director of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, and Mayor Mark Stodola related to the publicity stunt yesterday built around withdrawing from the mayor's rash pronouncement that the city would seek an Amazon HQ2 project even though the city didn't meet the company's criteria.

It was not even 24 hours ago that Sophia Said, director of the Interfaith Center; City Director Kathy Webb and others decided to organize a protest today of Donald Trump's executive order that has left people from Muslim countries languishing in airports or unable to come to the US at all — people with visas, green cards,a post-doc graduate student en route to Harvard, Google employees abroad, families. I got the message today before noon; others didn't find out until it was going on. But however folks found out, they turned out in huge numbers, more than thousand men, women and children, on the grounds of the state Capitol to listen to speakers from all faiths and many countries.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson and 2nd District U.S. Rep. French Hill have refused to participate in TV debates scheduled in September.

Chintan Desai, the Democratic candidate for 1st District Congress, just dropped by with some news: An endorsement, a debate date and a celebrity visitor for his Republican incumbent opponent, Rep. Rick Crawford.

A lawsuit was filed today in the federal court for the District of Columbia challenging Arkansas's work requirement for many Medicaid recipients.

Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights legend, will visit Little Rock Sunday afternoon for a fund-raiser for state Rep. Clarke Tucker, the Democratic candidate for 2nd District Congress against Republican Rep. French Hill.